Under the Sea: Tips for Shooting in Water

Nature is a wild and wonderful backdrop for shooting photos and video. The elements are each unique in both the way they appear on screen, and in the way they're captured on camera. Nowhere is this more evident than with the art of shooting 'neath the waves. The sheer physics that distinguish water from air make it necessary to adhere to different shooting techniques to get optimal footage.

So if your next project is submergible, don't hold your breath! Here are a few tips to help your project rise to the surface.

Suit up.Both you and the camera need to put on a swimsuit! For you, that might mean a bikini or a wetsuit, but for your camera, it means a thoroughly watertight case, or “housing.” Which protective housing you use depends on what type of camera you're using. You can generally find either generic housings, or specific branded cases online—Amazon.com and BHPhotoVideo.com are good places to start. There are also cameras like GoPro on the market, which are ready-made to use underwater—it comes in a waterproof case that can be submerged almost 200 feet.

Avoid seasickness.Steady as she goes. Things move differently in water than they do in air. Water is thicker, and objects have to fight harder to move through it. That includes you and your camera. Trying to follow action underwater manually or using the zoom—especially if you're trying to capture underwater wildlife that are designed by nature to move through water—won't get you viable footage. It's too hard to coordinate movements and get exact shots. It will make your viewers seasick! When you hit record, just let action happen in front of the camera. The resulting footage will be inherently stunning.

Go toward the light.The deeper you go under the surface of a natural body of water, the less light you'll have to work with while shooting. Unless you have an encased light or two with you that works when submerged (which can be costly), you'll need to stay fairly close to the surface (within a few feet) to get good light. While this can seem like a limitation, it actually can afford you more creativity, and get some truly beautiful shots.

Be in the red.As light enters water, the liquid absorbs the colors that make up the light, one piece of the spectrum at a time. The first to get swallowed are the reds, which causes the resulting footage to appear more green or blue than you desire. To combat the color distortion, you can either use a red filter, a submergible light, or attempt to adjust it in post using your editing software.